The art of glass container manufacture is currently dominated by the so-called individual section or IS machine. Such machines comprise a plurality of separate or individual manufacturing sections, each of which include a multiplicity of operating mechanisms for converting a charge or gob of molten glass into a hollow glass container. In general, each section includes a parison mold in which a glass gob is initially formed in a blowing or pressing operation, an invert arm for transferring the parison to a blow mold in which the container is blown to final form, and tongs for removing the container for transfer to an annealing lehr. Additional mechanisms provide for closure of the mold halves, movement of baffles and blowing nozzles, control of mold cooling wind, etc. U.S. Pat. No. 4,362,544 includes a comprehensive background discussion of the art of both "blow and blow" and "press and blow" glassware forming processes, and also discloses an electropneumatic individual section machine adapted for use in either process.
The art of inspecting glassware for manufacturing faults is also well developed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,413,738 discloses a system in which each container is routed through one of a plurality of multistation inspection devices for automated optical inspection for sidewall and finish faults. Each container has integrally molded indicia which uniquely identifies the mold of container origin, and a finished product computer receives fault signals and correlates faults with defective molds or malfunctioning machine sections. U.S. application Ser. No. 769,527, filed Aug. 26, 1985, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,691,830 and assigned to the assignee hereof, discloses an automated system for inspection and sorting of molded containers such as glass bottles as a function of mold cavity of container origin. Container fault signals are correlated with forming machine sections and molds, and fault information is fed to the mold operators for implementation of corrections.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,152,134 and 4,369,052 disclose computer-based systems for controlling operation of glassware forming machines. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,152,134, each individual section of an IS machine is coupled to an individual section computer, and a multiplicity of individual section computers are coupled to a machine supervisory computer-for downloading control programming. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,052, a multiplicity of machine supervisory computers are coupled to a forming supervisory computer for enhanced overall control, and for storage and reporting of defect information. The disclosed systems include facility for operator adjustment of mechanism timing in the various forming sections. Pressure control, however, remains difficult to implement. Thus, the art has yet to implement a fully automated glassware manufacturing system wherein all parameters of the glassware manufacturing process are automatically controlled for correction of detected faults.